InterCity80s

Will definitely be picking up the "other" black fronted APT set so I can have a matching pair. Great to see the return of (an improved) 4-VEP. Hopefully 2023 will bring some earlier liveries (same with the re-tooled HSTs...) Nice to see 21 pin decoder sockets being adopted too.

I suppose it depends on how many people are looking to run full 14 car sets. I've pre-ordered the 7 car set and have bought 3 of the additional coach packs (TRBS, TS and TF) so, in theory, could be running a 12 car set. Realistically though, it's far more likely to be a non-symmetrical 8 or 9 cars (DTS - TBF - NDM - TBF - TF - TRBS - TS - DTS) depending on whether I include the dummy NDM or not.

It looks like it's probably already too late for those intending to build a 14 car set based on the 7 car pack to source an extra motorised NDM and it wouldn't be the "correct" one anyway. Maybe Hornby could provide a motorised chassis so those with a dummy NDM could swap the body over? Unlikely, I suspect.

Latest editon of Hornby's Engine Shed blog says that the APTs are due this month: Link: https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/engine-shed/a-star-from-the-east

Probably not a massive surprise but it looks as though a single powered NDM struggles with a full 14 car set: I doubt I'll be running mine with more than 10 cars tbh but possibly worth considering an extra powered NDM (if you can still find one) for anyone intending to use the 7 car set as the basis for a full 14 car train?

Me neither. The photo on Hornby's website isn't much help (which part of that were you supposed to be getting for a fiver?) Always thought the price seemed odd if it was a platform as the other Skaledale platform pieces (e.g. R8614 and the existing platform island - R7287) were significantly more expensive.

Yeah. I placed an "insurance" pre-order from Hornby around the time when people were getting their retailer pre-orders for other items cancelled at the last minute and the tiering system news came out. My Hornby pre-order was at the then full RRP (£484.99), which was higher than my retailer pre-order (10% under RRP). When Hornby put their prices up last summer, my two pre-orders were going to cost about the same (Hornby at the original RRP, retailer at 10% under the new RRP of £533.49). Once it became clear that my retailer didn't appear to have been impacted by the tiering changes/stock allocation cancellations, I decided to cancel my Hornby pre-order and stick with my preferred retailer. In hindsight that probably wasn't the greatest decision from a financial perspective

Same happened with me. For some reason I can't quite remember, I had ordered one of the coach packs from Hornby themselves rather than my usual retailer. They all ended up costing about the same as my retailer applied a 10% discount on the new higher price.

Slightly OT for the APT but I've just noticed the Class 91s are now £217.99 on Hornby's website. The RRP was £169.99 when I pre-ordered mine (from my usual retailer who were, at the time, offering a 10% discount down to £152.99). I don't think my retailer are going to be able to honour that original price (nor would I reasonably expect them to) so I guess I'm now looking at a retailer price of about £196 ish?

And so would your APT if you'd pre-ordered from Hornby themselves (I assume, if this follows the way they have handled previous price increases...)

The guy in the US with his APT has posted up another video:

Cutting it a tad fine to secure the early bird discount but finally got around to ordering my 92

Not sure about with a single power car but it certainly seems to run well enough with two powered NDMs:

I think that's two powered power cars: the one that comes with the 5 car set and the separately available powered one (R3948).

Looks great. The full 14 car set clearly needs a lot of space

I ordered one of the Coronation Scot coaches directly from Hornby recently and it arrived with some bubble wrap around the coach box, which was fixed to a large rectangular piece of foam with elastic bands and then inserted into the outer box. As such, I don't think the coach itself could move around within the outer carton and had a degree of protection. The outer box had "GFM" branding on the parcel tape. It seems odd that Hornby would have specified a lower standard of packaging for a £200+ loco than they would for a coach costing about a quarter as much.

https://uk.Hornby.com/christmas/advent-calendar-2021

Hornby Magazine have posted a video of the new Hornby Clan: Some people have raised the running plate colour in the comments, to which Hornby Magazine have replied: and

Changing by the day

The Hornby website is showing both 5 and 7 car sets as being due in December 2021 now: https://uk.Hornby.com/catalogue/coming-soon?winter=true&page=1

Simon Kohler said in an interview a while back that they had intended to re-tool the Class 90 but abandoned it when Bachmann announced theirs. From a consumer's perspective I guess that's worked out okay as we now have the option of the more detailed Bachmann at a higher price or the more basic Hornby model for the more budget conscious. Given the relatively small number of viable diesel/electric models (compared to steam), is it inevitable that we are going to see more duplication in the years to come?

There's some footage of the 7 car APT set in this month's Signal Box:

I think it's already been mentioned in the thread but I just got an e-mail from Hornby re the new APT featuring in tonight's episode of A Model World:

Yeah, I prefer the pre-Mallard versions as well. Maybe they'll do them at some point in the future. Either way, it's definitely one of my favourite post-privatisation liveries.